AK Senate President Lyda Green (R-Wasilla) reacts to Palin choice

Wasilla is a small town, but it’s home to the Republican governor and the Republican state senate president. According to the Anchorage Daily News the senate president was less than impressed with McCain’s choice.

State Senate President Lyda Green said she thought it was a joke when someone called her at 6 a.m. to tell her the news.

“She’s not prepared to be governor. How can she be prepared to be vice president or president? said Green, a Republican from Palin’s hometown of Wasilla. “Look at what she’s done to this state. What would she do to the nation?”

More after the fold.

Alaska Senate President Lyda Green (R-Wasilla) had a few more choice words for her neighbor, the governor.

Green, who has feuded with Palin, brought up the big oil tax increase Palin pushed through last year. She also pointed to the award of a $500 million state subsidy to a Canadian firm to pursue a natural gas pipeline that’s far from guaranteed.

House Speaker John Harris, a Republican from Valdez, was also astonished at the news. He didn’t want to get into the issue of her qualifications.

“She’s old enough,” Harris said. “She’s a U.S. citizen.”

With that much love from your fellow hometown Republican, do we really need to report on the reaction from the Democrats? Of course not, but it’s fun.

Anchorage Democratic Sen. Hollis French said it’s a huge mistake by McCain and “reflects very, very badly on his judgment.”

Alaska Democratic Party chairwoman Patti Higgins, attending her party’s national convention in Denver, said she was shocked to hear the news this morning.

“In this very competitive election for them to go pick somebody who is … under a cloud of suspicion, who is under investigation for abuse of power. It just sounds like a pretty slow start to me,” Higgins said.

The state Legislature is investigating whether Palin and her staff broke state law by pressuring the public safety department to fire a state trooper who was in a custody battle with her sister.

“We need a vice president who can step in if, God forbid, something happened to John McCain,” Higgins said. “I don’t think she’s someone who is ready for that 3 a.m. phone call.”

Ms. Green said the governor was difficult for her to deal with, a state of affairs she traces to Ms. Green’s decision to remain neutral in Ms. Palin’s race against former Governor Murkowski.

“There was some resentment there that some of us didn’t come out and support her during the primary, and it never really got any better,” Ms. Green said. “I found that if you disagreed with her or tried to amend or change something, that was sort of off-limits. She did not like being told no or to change it.”